Bentley

Bentley

 

 

W.O. Bentley (WO to his friends) and his brother HM bought Lecoq and Fernie, a French auto company, renaming it Bentley and Bentley, with headquarters in Mayfair. In 1919, after a stint making airplane engines during WWI, the company was resurrected as Bentley Motors The first Flying B insignia appeared on the 1920 Bentley 3 1/2 Liter test car, which was built near Baker Street in London, and the first production car, another 3 1/2 Liter, was delivered to Bentley's first customer in 1921. Bentley saw its first win at Brooklands in 1921, then entered its only Indianapolis 500 in 1922, where it qualified and finished last.

 

  A privately owned Bentley took 4th place in the first-ever Le Mans in 1923, prompting W.O. Bentley to support a factory team. Rolls-Royce bought the company and kept WO on, if only to keep him from creating a new company that could compete with R-R. The first Rolls-produced Bentley, the 3.5 Liter, debuted in 1933, and WO left the company for Lagonda in 1935. In 1939, the Bentley factory at Crewe opened.

 

The Bentley Continental lineup has expanded from one very fast sedan to seven even faster sedans and convertibles, including one flex-fuel vehicle. Each has the 6-liter W12 engine, but the Continental Supersports, as part of Bentleys commitment to reducing its carbon footprint company-wide, can run on either gasoline or biofuels. With the introduction of the Bentley Mulsanne in the summer of 2009, though, Bentley was back on firm ground with a long, luxurious, gasoline-powered sedan.